Yay I finally bought a yarn ball winder :happydance: It's so great and fun...look... :yay:

nadja la claire

01-17-2007, 10:41 AM

OOOOO AHHHHHH!!!!!! :cheering: :cheering: :cheering: How lovely!!!!! One of these days I'll have one of those.

:muah: :hug:

Nadja xxx

Mulderknitter

01-17-2007, 11:06 AM

Isn't it fun! I love mine too. Just have to make the dh sit long enough to hold the yarn though! :roflhard:

lindakh

01-17-2007, 11:20 AM

NICE!!

DH and I are on a limited budget, and I convinced him that I also *needed* a ball winder after I made him help me wind a ball of lace-weight yarn by hand (and found one 50% off). It is a **dream**!!

msoebel

01-17-2007, 11:40 AM

Trying to talk hubby into one now. So jealous of the pretty wound yarn!

Misty

Lisa1216

01-17-2007, 12:19 PM

DH gave me a ball winder and swift for Christmas and I was so excited the first time I set it up and used it. :happydance: My younger DD just shook her head and laughed! (The non-knitters just don't get it!)

Eloewien

01-17-2007, 12:24 PM

The night I got mine, I sat down and wound all the yarn I have. :) It fits in bins so much better now!

cookworm

01-17-2007, 02:15 PM

Wow!!! :inlove: That's great!!! I'm always nervous working from a skein, and I don't like hand-winding my skeins/hanks.

Can I ask what may be a simple question (but I don't know the answer)? Can you use a ball winder on skeins of yarn? If so, how do you do it? Do you have somebody hold the skein while you crank the handle on the winder until the yarn is gone? :shrug:

brendajos

01-17-2007, 02:20 PM

I have used it for skeins when i have had yarn vomit that was more than i want to deal with. i have some bowls and a measuring cup that sit next to my winder and swift that i have used for blocking hats. Whenever i have wound a skein i have just dropped it into the two cup measuring cup and started winding. i usually hold my hand over the top of the cup to avoid it coming flying out. I do find they tend to wind a little looser but they still work well for skeins.

cookworm

01-17-2007, 02:26 PM

But now for hanks, you'd need to get a swift too (or at least make one yourself (http://knitting-interrupted.com/swirl-instructions/)), right? Unless you can find a patient friend/relative to hold the yarn while you wind, right? :teehee: This doesn't exist at my house (the patient part!) :rofl: Sorry if these are really elementary questions...I'm still learning some of the knitting tools and I don't always know what they're for or how to use them. :oops:

Jan in CA

01-17-2007, 02:27 PM

:cheering: I want one!!!!

Are all ball winders hand crank? Anyone know? I guess I could look it up.. :teehee:

candicane

01-17-2007, 02:37 PM

I got one for Christmas too and I love it!

Of course, the first skein I wanted to wind ended up being a ginormous disaster and was such a tangly mess, I ended up tossing the yarn wad into my suitcase and letting my mom untangle it when I got there. I really thought I had the outside strand when I started winding!

candice

bip

01-17-2007, 03:03 PM

My mom got me a winder and swift for Christmas. Actually, we ended up waiting for New Year's so we could use a 40% off coupon. We ended up getting both for the price of one. Nice! I still haven't used them, and now I feel like a real dope. Last night I needed to wind some yarn, but I was intimidated by the winder, and this wasn't even a job that would involve the swift (which is the more daunting apparatus, right?)

I ended up winding the yarn by hand center-pull style the way I learned a a while ago from SNB. Now that I see your pretty work, I feel like a complete dope. I should have just used the winder and gotten a nice tidy little ball out of it. Not that my hand-wound ball isn't nice, but I am thinking the winder would have gone faster and made a more even ball. Duh. I have more to do tonight. Maybe I'll take a few shots of liquid courage and finally pull that winder out of the box, lol.

jberry16

01-17-2007, 03:52 PM

:cheering: I want one!!!!

Are all ball winders hand crank? Anyone know? I guess I could look it up.. :teehee:
yes they're a hand crank

CarmenIbanez

01-17-2007, 05:21 PM

SO WORTH IT! Much easier to store yarn properly.

Dilly

01-17-2007, 06:07 PM

:cheering: I want one!!!!

Are all ball winders hand crank? Anyone know? I guess I could look it up.. :teehee:

When I was at Stitches East, one of the booths had an electric ballwinder. I'm not sure how much they would cost though. :shrug:

bip

01-17-2007, 06:08 PM

SO WORTH IT! Much easier to store yarn properly.

How does it do with "hiding yarn from loved ones and other potentially hostile parties"?

losnana

01-17-2007, 06:59 PM

My DH made me a swift right after Christmas, using the website cookworm mentioned. Instead of using velcro strips he attached pegs to the bottoms of the wooden strips to go into holes he drilled in the lazy susan. He also put several holes in the strips, for large and small hanks. it works GREAT with a ball winder made from a cordless drill. I'm thinking of buying the ball winder itself, because I'm too lazy to go to the garage. then again, that $ could buy yarn.

*KnitPixie*

01-17-2007, 07:18 PM

I got kinda desperate at one point and used my sewing machine to wind a ball of yarn :teehee: My hands were paining me and I figured I would try it out and low and behold it worked well :cheering:

PurpleMittens

01-17-2007, 08:53 PM

What is a swift?

brendajos

01-17-2007, 08:56 PM

a swift is what holds the yarn while you are using the ball winder. it is in lieu of a chair back, someone else's hands, a lamp shade, or whatever you use to hold the yarn when you are winding a hank.

Joann.com has one that is wonderful i think. people have successfully made their own too.

psammeadred

01-17-2007, 09:26 PM

How does it do with "hiding yarn from loved ones and other potentially hostile parties"?

It makes them into nice, flat, compact cylinders that are less likely to roll out of the closet or out from under the bed at inopportune moments, like when someone is berating your for your increasing amounts of fluffy sheep love.

brendajos

01-17-2007, 09:44 PM

:teehee: stop saying fluffy sheep love!

redwitch

01-18-2007, 12:16 AM

I love winding wool on mine... cheap off our version of ebay.
I wind from a hank without a swift or someone to hold the wool, I hold the hank in one hand, hanging down toward the floor, and wind carefully with the other hand. When the wool getting pulled out of the hank reaches my hand, I'm extra slow, and careful to keep my fingers out of the way. I rewind once or twice after that(but I'd do that anyway, for fun and for getting the wool wound as loosely as possible).
But it might be too slow or miserable for anyone who doesn't enjoy winding, or winds a lot of wool, or winds very very thin wool (3 km per hank anyone?).

Sarah

DreamWeaver

01-18-2007, 03:54 AM

Dear God, we have the EXACT SOME BALL WINDER! O_o

I would post a picture, but I can't find my camera. But, seriously, it looks exatly like that one! Am I the only one who finds that really cool?

zkimom

01-18-2007, 08:17 AM

Kblue,

I'm so glad you posted a picture of your yarnwinder. I have never paid much attention to the things as I either have my yarn wound at the yarn store or my kids help (isn't that what they are there for?? :teehee: )

Anyway, it brought back a memory for me of my mom bringing home her first yarn winder (it looks just like your, I think she still may have it) and us winding every skein of yarn we could get our hands on. She was so tickled with her yarn winder --I remember she got it when she was experimenting with machine knitting. This was more than 20 years ago, I'm sure.

Well into her 70s and with Parkinson tremors and arthritis, my mom is still knitting(quilting and crocheting,too!)

Now I have to call her and ask if she still has that thing!

Well, running late again and time to get the kids out of bed.

Have a happy day, all!
Susan

kblue

01-18-2007, 10:57 AM

It was definatly one of those things i kept going back and forth about (i'll buy it ...no i won't i don't really need it...yes i will buy it...) Finally i decided to buy it because winding the yarn into a ball by hand takes FOREVER and since i have small hands sometimes it's hard to hold the ball once it gets to a certain size...I'm actually clawing into the ball to hold it. I don't have any helpers to hold the yarn I just pull it right from the hank/skein <---is that what it's called i get confused..my kids are too young to help hold it and my hubby is still weirded out that i've taken up knitting. He's one of those people who thought/think knitting it for "old" people :tap: . Well i showed him!!! :violin: <---that's what i felt like doing ha ha ha ha j/k. I think he's over it now that he's seen some of the things i've made.

bip

01-18-2007, 12:13 PM

I used it this morning! It was awesome! It took a minute to get the hang of (I kept letting the yarn wind under the platform, argh), but then I couldn't stop. My husband said, "I'm walking out the door now, don't you want to come with me?" Nooooo, I just want to wind yarn :)